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5 Ways to Help Children Increase Frustration Tolerance

1–Teach them to label (name) their emotions

One reason why children act out in anger or frustration is that they cannot express themselves or their feelings appropriately. Maybe they do not understand the concept or name of the feeling of frustration and so they yell and stomp their feet instead. Helping children learn to name and recognize feelings in themselves and others allows them to better express their feelings. When children are better able to express their feelings they have an easier time learning to manage and control those feelings.

Parents can teach children
about feelings in various ways.

One option is to discuss
feelings directly as the child experiences those feelings and as they see
others experience those feelings. When you are angry you can talk about being
angry. When the new puppy runs up to you, you can talk about what feeling excited
looks like. When the child is tearful you can talk about feeling sad. These are
teachable moments for the child to learn skills during real-life situations.

Another option is to teach feelings and emotions like you would teach a child anything else—through PLAY!! Find coloring sheets online, such as these, to color with your child and discuss the feelings while you color. You can cut apart emotion images and play bingo or make a memory game. You can even make your own puzzles with them or purchase puzzles showing emotions! There are several ideas for fun ways to teach children about emotions!

2–Model appropriate frustration tolerance for them

One of the best teachers of emotions is YOU, the parent! You can teach, not only by your words but by your example. This is especially important because your example is likely to be the best teacher of all.

If you expect your child
to manage emotions well, then you need to model this. If you are yelling at the
car in front of you driving down the road because you are frustrated, then your
child will learn that people should yell when they are frustrated. On the other
hand, if children see their parents being helpful and caring out of love for
each other, then they are likely to mimic that behavior as well.

Even when a parent has a
bad day and acts inappropriately out of anger or frustration, this can be a
teachable moment too! You can apologize (sincerely) to the child or your significant
other or whomever for your poor behavior. You can even discuss what a better
choice would be next time you felt that same way.

3–Help them learn appropriate coping strategies

You can also teach your
children appropriate ways to act when they are frustrated or feeling whatever
emotion they may have. If they are angry you can help them learn deep breathing
techniques to calm down or help them find a quiet place in your home to go to be
alone for a few minutes when they are upset. You can even teach them how to act
appropriately when excited. Yes, I know that sounds silly, but sometimes children
need to learn when is the appropriate time to bounce around with excitement and
scream and when this not appropriate.

Even big kids need to snuggle with their favorite stuffies every now and then

4–Ensure they have appropriate sleep, exercise, and nutrition

Sometimes children struggle
to manage their emotions because they are not having their best day. Maybe they
did not sleep well the night before or stayed up too late and they are tired? Maybe
it has been a very busy day and they are simply exhausted. Even busy days that are
fun and exciting can cause children to be overly tired and, thus, irritable and
grouchy.

Even after a fun evening at Chuck E Cheese….tantrums can be unleashed

Sometimes children act out because they have excess energy to burn off. Parents need to make sure children get exercise each and every day. One of the best ways for children to exercise is to PLAY! Ride bikes! Skateboard! Play house! Jump rope! Swim! Swing! Walk! Hike! Anything! Something fun that gets them up and moving (and away from electronic devices!)

Children also need good
nutrition to be healthy and feel well. They need three meals a day and good,
healthy snacks. This is not to say that they can never have sweets or other
junk food items, but these should be limited. Additionally, make sure they are drinking
enough water!

5–Practice!

Lastly, like any skill,
skills need to be practiced. Frustration tolerance is a skill and it needs to
be practiced as well. Children can practice frustration in real-life situations
when they are actually feeling angry or frustrated, but they can also practice
these skills before they are under excessive amounts of stress and feeling
chaotic emotions.

Play games with the children, especially ones that are won by chance only, such as Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. These types of games allow the child to practice being a good winner and a good loser in a situation where everyone has the exact same chance of winning or losing.

You can get them involved
with team sports so they can learn and practice good sportsmanship. These types
of situations allow them to work with peers, practice problem-solving skills,
and work on controlling emotions when life does not go their way. However, if
they are really having a hard time with this, they are likely to need some
additional guidance in these situations. Maybe you can be a parent helper for
the sports team or scouting group so you can be close enough to guide them and can
still stay back and let them make their own choices and own friends.

There are endless ways to help your children manage emotions and improve their frustration tolerance. These are just five of the many ways that work well to teach children to better control their emotions. The important part is that you, as the parent, work with them to learn appropriate coping skills and that you model good skills for them.

For additional resources for better communication skills, along with your improved coping skills, check out this article.

These are awesome tips! Especially modeling a positive frustration response ourselves. My granddaughter and I talk often about how she is truly feeling. For instance, when she says she is mad or angry, we talk about the seed of that emotion, where it came from, and what the feeling might actually be. Great post!

This is a good list. We practice ‘making faces’ in a mirror to show different emotions. I ask them to show me what my face looks like when I am happy, sad, etc. It gets pretty funny while we are learning.

Fantastic ideas! I work in the prenatal-early childhood field, and a lot of my time is spent working with parents on doing all of the things you listed above. I love it! I’m going to share it on my work page!

Great post. I can apply these tips to my grandson as he gets older for sure. I found myself giggling a bit at my attempts to try this with my middle daughter when she was young. Oh goodness! She’s still an unruly one even at age 23, but I kind of still want to try these with her! LOL